The Latest: Governor hopeful pushes to legalize medical pot

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Latest on a Utah candidate for governor
whose wife pleaded guilty to pot possession charges for using the
drug to treat chronic pain (all times local):

4:15 p.m.

Utah's Democratic candidate for governor says he supports
legalizing medical marijuana to bring relief to people like his
wife, who pleaded guilty to charges of pot possession in
connection to the drug she uses to treat chronic pain.

Mike Weinholtz said in an emotional news conference Tuesday that
the current laws leave doctors with little choice but to
prescribe powerful painkillers with a risk of addiction that has
made opioids an epidemic in Utah and elsewhere.

Donna Weinholtz says she suffers from arthritis and degenerative
spinal conditions that left her unable to leave her bed some
days. She says that after she started using the drug, she was
able to plant tulip bulbs again.

Conservative Utah has passed a very limited medical marijuana
law, but a push to expand it died in the state legislature this
year.

____

1 p.m.

The wife of Utah Democratic candidate for governor Mike Weinholtz
has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor pot possession charges in a
deal with prosecutors that allows her to avoid jail time.

Court records show Donna Weinholtz agreed Tuesday to one year of
probation and a $3,800 fine. Her husband says she uses marijuana
to treat chronic pain rather than using addictive opiates.

Prosecutors said police found about two pounds of the drug in her
home. They say she also tried to mail a small amount of pot to
the couple's home in California.

The deal calls for her record to be cleared if she stays out of
trouble for a year.

Donna and Mike Weinholtz are scheduled to talk about the case at
a news conference Tuesday afternoon.